I am a delivery driver in New York City. It’s a very hard job, with chaotic traffic, working in extreme weather conditions and constantly battling hungry customers. But for me, this job works because I can choose my own hours, I earn money regularly to pay my bills, and I even go from app to app to see what suits me best. Sometimes I deliver from restaurants, other times it is better for me to deliver supermarket food depending on my schedule and where I am in the city.
But the city’s rules about how delivery drivers get paid are really confusing, and it makes me think they don’t really care about our working conditions. The City Council bill that was going to finally make grocery delivery apps pay the same rate as restaurant delivery apps was going to really help us balance things out. That Mayor Adams has refused to sign bills to extend the city’s minimum wage to all delivery drivers makes no sense. That is why I hope that the City Council defends what is fair for New York immigrants like me and overrides the veto of the Int 1135 and 1133 projects.
I was thrilled when the city adopted regulations requiring delivery platforms like DoorDash, UberEats, and GrubHub to pay their delivery drivers a minimum rate of at least $21.44 per hour. Suddenly I was going to make more money and I felt like all the effort and challenges of being a delivery driver were going to be recognized. We were all going to be able to earn a living wage and work with dignity.
But it was too good to be true, and I was frustrated to learn that the minimum fee only applied to apps like DoorDash, UberEats, and GrubHub, which primarily do restaurant deliveries, but not others like Instacart and Shipt, which only do grocery delivery. This sparked outrage and confusion among my fellow delivery drivers, as we believed our work would also qualify for minimum wage standards.
Now the mayor says they can’t pay the same for grocery prices. That doesn’t make sense, because all of these apps have the grocery delivery option, and many delivery drivers like me use more than one app, sometimes to accept the highest-paying orders, other times because they’re closer to my house or other part-time jobs. This means that if I take a grocery order for groceries on DoorDash, I’ll earn the minimum rate, but if I take the same order on Instacart, from the same grocery store and with the same items, I get paid much less.
It doesn’t make sense. I’m doing the exact same job on both apps, so why am I getting paid significantly less on one than the other?
So when I heard that the City Council noticed the same problem and wanted to correct it by expanding the city’s minimum wage to all delivery drivers, whether they deliver hot meals or fresh grocery items, I felt like the city was really listening to us. That the mayor has decided to veto these bills brings us back to square one.
They say it’s about grocery delivery not getting too expensive, and I get it, New York is expensive and the cost of everything is going up, I feel it every day. But what does paying workers more have to do with the price of groceries, and why is the mayor picking favorites and forcing some apps to pay a fee while others can do whatever they want? Call me crazy, but I don’t think the city should have to choose between paying delivery drivers a living wage and ensuring New Yorkers have access to affordable groceries.
Delivery drivers work hard to put food on the tables of New Yorkers every day, and we deserve to earn a fair wage that allows us to buy our own food and feed our families. It’s simply the right thing to do.
This City Council has been an ally of the working class many times before, and I hope they will support us again by overriding the mayor’s veto of Int 1135 and 1133 so that all delivery drivers can receive equal pay.
Cristian Carballo is a delivery driver who lives in Brooklyn